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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Life and Character 



EVARTS W. FARR, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE,) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE, 
U f, , FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

i 88 i . 



JOINT RESOLUTION to provide for the publication of the memorial addresses on Evarts 
W. Farr. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica in Congress assembled, That there be printed twelve thousand copies of the 
memorial addresses delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives upon the 
life and character of Honorable Evarts W. Farr, late a Representative from the 
State of New Hampshire, together with a portrait of the deceased; nine thousand 
copies thereof for the use of the House of Representatives and three thousand 
copies for the use of the Senate. And a sum sufficient to defray the expense of 
preparing and printing the portrait of the deceased for the publication herein pro- 
vided for is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise 
appropriated. 

Approved, March 3, 1881. 



ADDRESSES 



Death of Evarts W. Farr. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



December 6, 1880. 

Mr. Briggs. Mr. Speaker, it becomes my painful duty to announce 
the death of my late colleague, Hon. Evarts W. Farr, and I desire 
to present the following resolutions in connection therewith. I wish 
also to give notice that at some future day I will ask to present the 
customary resolutions, in order that appropriate remarks may be 
heard in relation to the life and services of the deceased. 

The Speaker. The resolutions proposed by the gentleman from 
New Hampshire will be read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 
• 

Resolved, That this House has heard with sincere regret the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Evarts W. Farr, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of New Hampshire, and a member-elect to 
the Forty-seventh Congress from said State. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to communicate 
the foregoing resolution to the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the deceased this 
House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were agreed to; and accordingly the House ad- 
journed. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



December 22, 1880. 
Mr. Updegraff, of Ohio. I have a resolution from the Committee 
on Invalid Pensions, which I ask permission to submit at this time. 
The Speaker. The resolution will be read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Whereas the Committee on Invalid Pensions desires to place upon 
its record its appreciation of the kindly qualities and faithful labors 
of their late member, Hon. Evarts W. Farr, of New Hampshire; 
and 

Whereas its members wish to express their regret and sympathy to 
the country, the State of New Hampshire, and to the bereaved family 
of the deceased in a worthy and substantial manner: Therefore, 

Resolved, That the House be requested to make the customary ap- 
propriation of the balance of the salary which would be due to him 
as a member of the Forty-sixth Congress; and that the next Con- 
gress, to which he was elected, be respectfully requested to make a 
similar appropriation of the salary which would have been due to 
him as a member of the Forty-seventh Congress. 

The Speaker. What disposition does the gentleman desire to make 
of the resolution ? 

Mr. Updegraff, of Ohio. I desire to have it considered. 

The Speaker. The Chair would suggest that action upon it would 
be facilitated by reference to the proper committee, the Committee 
on Appropriations. 

Mr. Updegraff, of Ohio. Very well. I will move that it be re- 
ferred to that committee. 

The resolution was referred accordingly. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



February i, 1881. 

Mr. Morse. Mr. Speaker, I ask consent at this time to introduce 
a resolution touching the funeral expenses of the late Representa- 
tive from New Hampshire, Hon. Evarts W. Farr. 

The Speaker. The resolution will be read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That there be paid out of the contingent fund of the 
House a sum sufficient to pay the necessary funeral expenses of Hon. 
Evarts W. Farr, late a Representative from the State of New 
Hampshire. 



The resolution was agreed to. 



February 18, 1881. 
Mr. Atkins, from the Committee on Appropriations, reported the 
following preamble and resolution : 

Whereas the Committee on Invalid Pensions desire to place upon 
its record its appreciation of the kindly qualities and faithful labors 
of their late member, Hon. Evarts W. Farr, of New Hampshire; 
and 

Whereas its members wish to express their regret and sympathy to 
the country, the State of New Hampshire, and to the bereaved family 
of the deceased in a worthy and satisfactory manner : Therefore, 

Resolved, That the House be requested to make the customary ap- 
propriation of the balance of the salary which would be due to him 
as a member of the Forty-sixth Congress ; and that the next Con- 
gress, to which he was elected, be respectfully requested to make an 
appropriation of six thousand dollars, in lieu of the entire salary 
which would have been due to him as a member of the Forty-seventh 
Congress. 

The resolution was adopted. 



ADDRESS OF MR. UR1GGS ON THE 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. BrIGGS, OF New j-JAMPSHIRE. 

FeBRUARV 8, l88l. 

Mr. Speaker: I desire to submit the following resolutions. 
The Speaker. The resolutions will be read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound sorrow the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Evarts W. Farr, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of New Hampshire. 

Resolved, That in token of regard for the memory of the lamented 
deceased the members of this House do wear the usual badge of 
mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of this House do communicate these 
resolutions to the Senate of the United States. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased this Ht>use now adjourn. 

Mr. Briggs. Mr. Speaker, I rise to perform the melancholy duty 
of announcing to this House the death of my colleague, Evarts W. 
Farr, which occurred at his home in Littleton on the 30th of Novem- 
ber last. It was my sad privilege to be with him when he passed 
away. He died as he had lived, with the heroism of a noble man- 
hood born of hope and faith. 

It is no vain tribute of respect New Hampshire would fain pay to 
her noble and gallant son. As a member of this House, I submit he 
was universally respected both by political friends and foes. But it 
is not merely an excellent Representative at the National Capitol 
that New Hampshire mourns in the death of Major Farr, Among 
those who pressed eagerly to the front when an imperiled nation 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. "] 

called her sons to her rescue, this man was the pride of our State, and 
under the flag with which we draped that hearse at Littleton he 
earned the imperishable gratitude of our people. 

Evarts W. Farr was born at Littleton on the ioth of October, 
1840. He belonged to one of the best families of our State. His 
father, an honored member of the legal profession, survives him. Mr. 
Farr was one of eight children, and his early advantages were those 
of the typical New England country lad. He pursued his academic 
course at Thetford, Vermont, where he was graduated with honors, 
and went thence to college. Frank, earnest, and intelligent, the char- 
acter of the boy gave true promise of the man. What might have 
been his fortune had he been permitted quietly to pursue his studies, 
we cannot tell. Destiny had assigned him a part in a stupendous 
drama, which was to startle Christendom. In that drama he per- 
formed his part gloriously and well; and like many other young 
Americans of that eventful period, he leaped to distinction before he 
had reached the age of manhood. 

At the breaking out of the war young Farr was a member of Dart- 
mouth College. With characteristic decision, he turned his back 
upon college and his face to the field. He was the first man to enter 
the service from the town of Littleton, from which he enlisted in the 
First New Hampshire Volunteers. He served continuously from April 
20, 1861, to June 4, 1865. 

Soon after he entered the service he joined the New Hampshire 
Second; was appointed a lieutenant June 4, 1861 ; he was promoted 
to the rank of captain January 1, 1862, and while in command of 
company G lost his right arm at the battle of Williamsburgh, Virginia, 
May 5, 1862. His regiment, one of the most gallant and distin- 
guished in the service, was then one of the four constituting General 
Hooker's original brigade. 

As soon as his wound permitted he returned to the field, and Sep- 
tember 9, 1862. was promoted to rank of major in the New Hamp- 



shire Eleventh. After righting with distinguished gallantry at Fred- 
ericksburgh, Major Farr went with his regiment to the West, and 
participated in the siege and capture of Vicksburgh. After the capt- 
ure he went South with General Sherman to attack General John- 
ston at Jackson, Mississippi, and during the remainder of the war 
served on court-martial duty, most of the time as judge-advocate. 

Unquestionably his employment on court-martial duty during all 
the latter part of the war alone prevented his high promotion in the 
line. As it was, his career as a soldier was an exceptionally brill- 
iant and successful one. In many of the severest engagements of the 
war he won golden laurels. In the action at Fredericksburgh it was 
my fortune to be near him, and no veteran of a hundred battles could 
have shown a statelier, loftier heroism. There was a touch of chiv- 
alry in his nature, and he was then of the age when this spirit is at 
high tide. His patriotism was not lost in the effervescent spirit of the 
cavalier; he had devotion as well as courage. Nor was his courage 
of that lower order, derived from excitement. It had nothing to do 
with rashness nor frenzy. He was cool, patient, and determined. It 
was the courage of Ney rather than that of Murat. In the fiercest 
and most disheartening fight he was never known to lose his self- 
command. This, with his quick decision and soldierly intuition, com- 
bined to make him a man of wonderful resources. In action or in 
any grave and responsible situation he never was "at his wit's end." 

Another trait of a great soldier was his fortitude, his power of en- 
durance. " No pain," writes an officer who was long and most inti- 
mate with him, "no pain that he suffered could bring a moan, no toil 
he encountered could dismay him, the longest and hardest march we 
ever made could not bring a word of complaint from his lips." 

In the fight between Hooker's and Longstreet's divisions at Will- 
iamsburgh, Farr's coolness and endurance came out in full flower. 
The fight was close, hot, and prolonged to the verge of human en- 
durance. It rained hard, and the sufferings of the men were terrible. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 9 

Farr seemed imbued with the spirit of a multitude. He demeaned 
himself through that weary, bloody day in a manner never to be for- 
gotten by those to whom it was known. His valor was equaled only 
by his equanimity. Only breaking ranks, only the signs of yielding, 
could provoke his impatience. Just at the close of that terrible day 
he received the shot which made his empty sleeve thenceforth his 
badge of honor. 



What a tell-tale thing is an empty sleeve. 

It tells in a silent tone to all, 

Of a country's need, and a country's call, 

Of a kiss and a tear for child and wife, 

And a hurried march for a nation's life: 

It tells of a battle-field of gore, 

Of the saber's clash, of the cannon's roar, 

Of the deadly charge, of the bugle's note, 

Of a gurgling sound in a freeman's throat, 

Of the whizzing grape, of the fiery shell, 

Of a scene which mimics the scenes of hell; 

Though it points to a myriad wounds and scars, 

Yet it tells that a flag of stripes and stars, 

In God's own chosen time will take, 

Each place of the rag with the rattle-snake; 

And it points to a time when that flag will wave, 

O'er a land where there breathes no cowering slave. 

Till this very hour, who could ere believe, 

What a tell-tale thing is an empty sleeve, 

What a weird, queer thing, is an empty sleeve. 



His tastes were essentially military, and he brought to his duties in 
the field that energy and fixedness of purpose which characterized 
the man in all he undertook. He mastered the science of the camp 
and field in an incredibly short time, and, young as he was, became 
a recognized authority therein. He was a strict disciplinarian, thor- 
ough and exact in all his duties, and requiring the same of others. 
But he was full of considerate kindness to his men, to whom he en- 
deared himself as the friend of all. 



IO ADDRESS OF MR. ER1GGS ON THE 

Prompt, brave, and responsible, he was ever at the post of duty ; 
and in those evil days there marched not under the flag a hero of 
more dauntless courage, a devotee of more unfaltering faith than 
Evarts W. Farr. 

At the close of the war he embraced the profession of the law and 
at once became one of the most promising members of the New 
Hampshire bar. An ardent and stirring Republican, he also came 
early to the front in the politics of our State. He held, successively, 
the positions of assistant assessor and assessor of his internal-revenue 
district, solicitor of Grafton County, and a member of the governor's 
council. To the latter position he was handsomely elected in a dis- 
trict which had always been strongly Democratic; and in this, as later, 
in his two Congressional canvasses, his popularity was abundantly 
demonstrated. He did credit to every place he held, and his elec- 
tion to the Forty-sixth, and his re-election to the Forty-seventh Con- 
gress, were only in the natural course of his ascendant fortune. Of 
his career in this House, so sadly and so early closed, I will not speak. 
That I leave to others. His record is familiar to you all. Is it not 
one of promise ? 

His memory long will live, alone 

In all our hearts, as mournful light 
That broods above the fallen sun, 

And dwells in heaven half the night. 

Of the character of the deceased I propose to offer few words other 
than those I have already spoken. His was an open, generous, san- 
guine, earnest nature — such an one as "he who runs may read." 
Were I fully to express my own admiration for the man, I should be 
suspected of intemperate speech. My acquaintance with him began 
in the Army, where we were comrades together, and from that time 
our friendship was fast. He was instinct with generous and kindly 
impulses which endeared him to his friends and bound them to him 
in bonds of the strongest affection. Naturally in such a character 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 1 1 

there was that which inspired his foes with respect, and however he 
might dislike, no man could despise Evarts W. Farr. 

Like all of us, the man had his faults; yet he had no prominent 
defects, and I never knew a man whose faults counted for less as 
against the general strength and purity of his character. I have had 
much to say of his earnestness, for this I conceive was the leading 
factor of his strength. He was ready to take up any duty that lay 
before him, and to attack it with firm and sincere purpose. He fol- 
lowed a purpose with his whole soul and did nothing by halves. This 
element of his character, together with his versatility, implied large 
possibilities. He was a young man, and with length of days must have 
accomplished that of which all that he had done was but a hint. On 
the whole, his character was solid, well rounded, and symmetrical ; with- 
out grotesque or brilliant eccentricities, he was a very positive force. 

The immediate cause of his death was a sudden and violent at- 
tack of typhoid pneumonia. Overwork had induced extreme debility, 
and his system had little power of resistance. His general health 
had been blighted in the Army, and his empty sleeve was not the 
only sad remembrance, not the only legacy of woe that he brought 
back from southern fields. A post-mortem examination disclosed 
the presence of chronic disease, which, at best, must ere long have 
proved fatal. 

In his domestic relations he commanded the strongest affection. 
We will not lift the veil from that circle of crushed hearts. There is 
that which should be respected. There is a supreme sorrow, as one 
day — 

There was dole in Astolat. 

Major Farr was a great favorite in our State, and his name will be 
set among those whom New Hampshire delighted to honor. He 
was a most gallant soldier, a promising young statesman, and a noble, 
sincere man. We bespeak your respect for his memory as some- 
thing we shall proudly and gratefully cherish. 



ADDRESS OF MR. ELAND ON THE 



^ddress of Mr. Bland, of Missouri. 

Mr. Speaker: Death has again visited these gilded walls and 
removed from our Chamber one of our most worthy and useful 
members. It is not my purpose to give a history of the deceased, 
but I shall confine myself to a few outlines that marked his life. 
Major Evarts W. Farr was bom at Littleton, New Hampshire, 
October 10, 1840. We learn that at the early age of twelve he 
struck out for himself, and by industry and hard toil procured the 
means for his livelihood and education. He graduated at Thetford 
(Vermont) Academy, and entered Dartmouth College with the class 
of 1863. But that patriotic ardor and devotion to his country and 
to duty that always characterized him caused him to leave college 
and volunteer as a soldier in the Union Army. He enlisted in 1861. 
For his bravery he was promoted through various grades to the rank 
of major. While with Fighting Joe Hooker's brigade he lost his right 
arm in the battle of Williamsburgh, in May, 1862. Notwithstanding 
the loss of his arm by amputation he continued in the Army, and 
served with a major's commission, participating in the battles of 
Vicksburgh and Jackson, Mississippi, and various other engagements, 
until he was appointed judge-advocate, the duties of which office he 
performed with marked distinction. After the war was over he com- 
menced the practice of law at his home in New Hampshire. As a 
soldier Major Farr was courageous, true to his country, never falter- 
ing where duty called. To his soldiers he was kind and considerate, 
though exacting in the performance of every command. 

Mr. Speaker, it was not rny fortune to know Major Farr person- 
ally till I met him in the Committee on Pensions. I shall never 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 1 3 

forget the first time I met him in committee-room. The chairman 
called over the names of the committee for reports. None were 
ready except Major Farr. When his name was called he brought 
forward a large list of bills with accompanying papers and his reports. 
He began sorting out his reports dexterously with one hand. I then 
for the first time noticed he had lost his right arm; but it seemed to 
me that this was no embarrassment to him, for he selected his reports 
from other papers with as much apparent ease and facility as though 
he was using both hands. He read his reports to the committee, and 
they were all adopted unanimously. 

I was struck with his familiarity with the pension laws, the rulings 
of the Pension Department, and the concise manner in which he 
stated the laws and the facts bearing on each case. I never knew 
one of his reports to be rejected or anywise amended by the commit- 
tee. His judgment was clear and logical. He was always careful 
of the interests of the public; but, while at all times diligent in pro- 
tecting the Government, he never permitted technical questions of 
law to weigh against what seemed to him to be an equitable and 
meritorious case. His justice was always " tempered with mercy." 
At times it was difficult to secure a quorum for business; several 
members of the committee were not regular in attendance. Not so 
with Major Farr; he was always prompt in attendance, and never 
behind with his reports. 

From my acquaintance with him I was led to highly respect him 
as a man of sterling integrity, of ripe judgment, and great industry. 
I think I may truly say his abilities were far beyond the average. 
He was serving his first term in Congress, and his modesty, the 
insignia of true merit, forbade him entering the arena of every-day 
debate and wrangle, a means by which too many endeavor to thrust 
themselves in the Record and before the public at the expense of 
orderly and intelligent legislation. But he never faltered in the dis- 
charge of his duty when he saw it necessary to attack a bad measure 



14 ADDRESS OF MR. BLAND ON THE 

or sustain a good one. Major Farr was a close attendant upon the 
sessions of the House. He was seldom out of his seat. He was 
watchful of all the proceedings of legislation. He seemed to com- 
prehend instinctively all that was proposed for action, and his judg- 
ment as to the right or wrong of a measure was seldom at fault. I 
differed with him politically, but I am sure he acted with his party 
from as sincere convictions as I did with mine. There was no mem- 
ber of the Forty-sixth Congress whom I respected more highly than 
him. If I were called upon to give my measure of the man, I should 
say that clear judgment, a high sense of honor, an inflexible will were 
his peculiar characteristics. He was also a man of generous and 
noble impulses. 

Mr. Speaker, this occasion brings to us the solemn thought of death, 
of the uncertainties of all human aims, and the end of our ambition. 
Man, like a shadow, gropes for a while in the gloom of earth and 
vanishes. The dark cloud glitters for a moment in the lightning's 
glare; the thunderbolt signalizes the approaching storm. The cloud 
drenches the earth with torrents that rush headlong down to the 
eternal sea. The thunder's roar dies away in soft echoes along the 
distant hills. The cloud melts away beneath the effulgence of the 
noonday's sun. Thus the whirl of life is spent and passes into eter- 
nity. Man may dominate the earth, but it was given to One alone 
to conquer death. 

We stand here to-day, and the words that fall from our lips are 
licked up with the tongue of electric fire and whispered in the ears 
of all nations. 

We span continents with iron girders and bridge them with the 
commerce of the world. We measure the depths of the sea, the 
breadth of rivers, and the distances and magnitude of the heavenly 
bodies. We predict with mathematical precision the course and 
velocity of planets, the visit, exit, and return of comets. Yet, sir, 
with all this power over earth and its surroundings we cannot tell the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 1 5 

day nor hour of our existence, for death " cometh as a thief in the 

night." 

Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath, 

And stars to set; but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death ! 

Happy for us we cannot foretell his coming. Our adjournment at 
the last session would have been sorrowful indeed had we known 
that on our reassembling one seat here would have thus been made 
vacant. Our grief was wisely spared us to this last moment. Yet, 
when we see a man thus cut down in the prime of life, when the 
dreams of his early ambition were being realized, we are tempted to 
complain at what would seem to be a harsh visitation of Providence. 
But, Mr. Speaker, death waits for no one. The justice and wisdom 
of an all-wise God are far beyond human ken. To His will we 
meekly bow; to his commiserations and tender mercies we commend 
the stricken widow and children of our friend. 

Evarts W. Farr is no more. His ■ mortal remains rest beneath 
the snow-mantled sod of his native State. 

There shall the yew her sable branches spread, 
And mournful cypress rear her fringed head ; 
From thence shall thyme and myrtle send perfume, 
And laurel ever green o'ershade the tomb. 

How unspeakably sad it would be to close our tribute to our friend 
here. Can we have the heart to consign him to the cold clay of 
mother earth, and there leave him as food for the worms? O no! 
no! The blessed hope of immortality forbids it. 

Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orb descend 
And grind us into dust; the soul is safe; 
The man emerges, mounts above the wreck 
As towering flame from nature's funeral pyre. 



l6 ADDRESS OF MR. BOWMAN ON THE 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. BOWMAN, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. Speaker: It is fitting that we should turn aside for a time 
from the business of the session, from our political contests and 
wrangles, from the heated discussion of disputed questions, from all 
the turmoil and noise and labors of Congressional life, and offer up 
our tribute of respect to the memory of our deceased friend and 
brother member, and place upon perpetual record our recognition 
and appreciation of his character and services. It is the last thing 
we can do for him. For him all the petty ambitions of life, the 
struggle for honorable distinction, the cares and troubles and disap- 
pointments which beset the life of every man who devotes it to 
services in high position for his country, the carping and unjust criti- 
cisms of opponents, the life of work and worry — all these, which are 
a part of the lot of every public man lifted up into a position where 
he can become the target of press or person, are over for our dead 
friend, and can trouble him no more in that better life of never- 
ending rest and peace to which he has gone. 

After life's fitful fever lie sleeps well. 

He passed away from an honorable and eventful life, and, although 
comparatively young in years, no one can feel that that life was not 
rounded out into full completeness, or mourn on his account that it 
has ended, although our sympathies go out to those near and dear to 
him, who lament his loss. All those who knew him, both in private 
and in his public career, realize that his State, his constituency, and 
his friends will miss his presence and the useful and honorable place 
which he occupied in the councils of the nation. 

His duty in life, his obligations to his country and his people, had 
been honorably and nobly performed, and it is perhaps a fortunate 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 17 

and happy fate for a man to pass away from this world in the height 
of his powers, in honorable position gained by faithful service for his 
fellow-men and by their appreciation of his worth, deeply regretted 
and lamented by them, rather than in the "sere and yellow leaf" of 
old age, with faculties impaired and powers of usefulness gone, so 
that as one sinks beneath the waters of life, he leaves scarcely a 
ripple behind. 

Judged by what he was and what he had done no one can call the 
life of our friend a short one; nay, more, upon the calendar of events 
and marked by them alone his was a life longer by far than many a 
one of fourscore years and ten. His life has been described by his 
colleague, who has preceded me ; it is not for me to refer to it in 
detail, or to the examples of heroism and devotion to country which 
it displays. 

From among the quiet and beautiful hills of the Granite State he 
went forth to battle for his country, and there has come to us from 
his comrades the touching story of his heroism, manliness, and devo- 
tion to the cause for which he was ready to sacrifice his life, and for 
which he probably has sacrificed his life as much as if he had in 
reality given it up from musket-ball or bayonet thrust on the field 
of battle. We know how early in the war he lost his arm, which was 
taken off at the shoulder, and how when for most men this would 
have been considered, and rightly considered, as an excuse from 
further service, and to have entitled them without further work and 
dangers to the honors and gratitude of their countrymen, he again left 
his home among the White Hills and went to the far southern coun- 
try to once more endure the hardships, trials, and dangers of military 
life. He had well earned the reward of rest from military labors 
and of escape from its dangers — earned it at sad cost — but he refused 
to accept that reward, counting life or loss of limb, suffering, and 
privation and danger as nothing, if he could serve his country. 

From all that I have seen and known of him; from what I have 



known of his life here and have heard of it as it was spent at his 
home among the New Hampshire mountains both before and after 
his military experience, I cannot but regard him as one of those mar- 
tyrs of the war who have really given up their lives for their country. 
The strong, vigorous, and rugged New Hampshire boy, reared in the 
bracing mountain air, where the very breezes are laden with strength 
and vitality, leading the healthy and hearty outdoor life of the coun- 
try, came back from the wars weakened and with his vitality sapped 
by enervating climate or deadly miasms or the vital waste caused 
by hardship, privation, and toil. 

Many a soldier gave up his life on the field of battle by stroke of 
sword, or met an immediate and therefore merciful and happy death 
by rifle-bullet or cannon-ball, and we honor them, and never can 
honor them too much, as men who died for their country; and we 
place above their graves the old but never worn-out legend that " It 
is sweet and beautiful to die for one's country," and shall hold them 
in grateful remembrance through all the ages. 

There was many and many a soldier who left behind him on south- 
ern battle-fields or in southern swamps,' when he came marching 
home after the war under triumphant flags, the better part of his life, 
a vitality and strength so weakened and sapped that no cool northern 
breezes and no fond attentions of home could restore them, and who 
brought back with him the seeds of disease and weakness, so that 
nevermore could he know the delights of health and the mere pleas- 
ure of living, but always his life must be, if not a burden to him, yet 
something to be careful of, to be watched and guarded, and thus 
keeping him back from all that he would be or do. Many a life has 
thus dragged itself along through weary years since the war and has 
prematurely ended, when, so far as human minds can foresee, it might 
have had before it many years of active and happy usefulness. 
These men were as truly the martyrs of the war as those who had 
the perhaps happier fate of meeting a short and sharp shrift on the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 1 9 

field of battle. For the one was the excitement, the honor, the 
glory, the swift passing away of life without suffering and without 
knowledge; for the other, the long and weary years, the patient en- 
durance, the uncomplaining words, the cheerful acquiescence in a 
life whose high capabilities he could not improve, and that feeling of 
limitation of powers and of his chance to make the most of his life 
which want of strength and endurance always brings, and then an 
early and premature death, when perhaps the promise of future use- 
fulness and advancement, the hopes of being most useful to himself 
and family and friends and country, are at the brightest. 

I do not mean to say that the life of our friend was thus hampered 
and bound in by the strong bonds of bodily weakness so that he 
could not make the most of it, and did not achieve high and honorable 
distinction which any man might well be proud of, but I believe that 
the causes of his death lie in his services in the war, and that, so far 
as men can judge of what cannot be seen or known, many years of 
honor and of usefulness would now be before him if it had not been 
for what he sacrificed and did for his country. His record as a 
soldier, a statesman, and a citizen is a most honorable one. 

My acquaintance with him commenced with the present Congress, 
to which we both of us came as new members, and, living near each 
other here, our acquaintance ripened into intimacy and friendship. I 
am sure that no one came into close contact with him or to really 
know him who did not feel for him respect and affection. Quiet and 
undemonstrative in his manners, not given to self-assertion or to 
show, not thrusting himself forward before the people, but content 
to remain quietly in the background unless he was needed and could 
do good at the front, the unthinking and careless world, judging only 
by the exterior and not caring to penetrate below the outer surface, 
might underrate him and not give to him credit for the qualities 
which he possessed; but behind his quiet manners there was a brave 
heart, an honest mind and purpose, deep and settled convictions of 



20 ADDRESS OF MR. BOWMAN ON THE 

right, which no plausible arguments or specious reasons could disturb. 
I think one of the distinguishing traits of his character was his hatred 
of shams and false pretensions, whether in public or private life, in 
humble or in official station; his desire to go to the root of a matter, 
and to find out the right and the true thing; his dislike of the thin 
veneers and disguises plastered over political or personal iniquities, 
wrongs, or injustice; his wish to call things by their right names and 
to have the world call them by their right names and recognize them 
as they were; in a word, his desire for the truth, however disagree- 
able, unpleasant, or humiliating. 

He was honest in conviction and word and action. The same 
desire to uphold the right which led him from his northern hills, and 
to give up all the comforts of home and to make sacrifices of health 
and limb, followed him into his public service here; and in these 
Halls he always sought by word and vote to do what he thought to 
be the right thing, and the honest, true, and therefore the best thing 
for the people and the country. The best policy is almost always no 
policy; but doing just the right thing and letting policies and the 
future take care of themselves, sooner or later the right triumphs, and 
we find that the unselfish policy of doing what is right without regard 
to consequences turns out to be the wisest as well as best policy. 

Our friend was a man of strong convictions, earnest purposes, and 
of excellent judgment, forming his opinions with care, and skilled in 
giving utterance to them when the occasion required. Honest and 
incorruptible, earnest and industrious, interested in all the great ques- 
tions of the day, faithful in attending to his duties here and elsewhere; 
a good man, a good soldier, a good statesman, pure in private life 
and in public life, such is his record, and such is the desciiption and 
the memorial of him which we can place upon our records. Happy 
is he who is thus laid to rest with his life's warfare accomplished, 
and with the feeling in the hereafter that he has fought the good fight 
and has passed away loved, honored, and respected. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 21 

We followed him to his last resting-place amid the snows of the 
beautiful valley which had always been his home. It seemed as if 
the whole population had gathered together to honor him in his death 
even as they had honored him in his life; to offer up the last tribute 
of respect which they could ever pay to him; to perform for him the 
last sad services which they could ever render. The affectionate 
words of remembrance, the tearful eyes, the faltering accents, the sad 
faces, all showed that our friend had as deep and warm a place in the 
hearts and affections of the people to whom he belonged as in their 
honor and respect. 

They gathered in great throngs to accompany in its last journey 
all that was left here below of our friend; to listen in the village 
church to the words of consolation and of praise of him who had 
gone out from among them never to return, and to find a sad solace 
in the recital and remembrance of his virtues and of his life among 
them from his boyhood to his death. And so almost under the 
shadow of Mount Washington and the Franconia range we laid him 
to rest amid the scenes which he loved so well, where the grand and 
majestic mountains, whitened to their summits with the snows of 
winter, look down upon his grave, and where in summer the ever- 
lasting hills whose granite summits pierce the sky keep watch and 
ward over the beautiful green valley where he has found his last rest- 
ing-place. 

^ddress of Mr. Updegraff, of Ohio. 

Mr. Speaker: To me it is a mournful pleasure to add my heart- 
deep tribute of veneration and love to what has already been so 
fittingly said in memory of our departed comrade. I shall avoid all 
extravagance of eulogy. The noble and manly character of Evarts 
YV. Farr would be marred by any unreal adornment. And yet it is 
well for his living associates, so soon to follow, to bear testimony to the 
worth and exalted character of him whose memory to-day we honor. 



2 2 ADDRESS OF MR. UPDEGRAFF ON THE 

Even in the rush of crowding duties here a moment's pause by 
the bier of a fallen comrade is not an idle ceremony. It is wise 
and well that for a little time at least party conflicts, and even the 
tumult of needful interests, should be hushed in such a presence. In 
that stillness are heard the truer voices, and to that vantage ground 
come purer air and glimpses of a serener sky. Partisanship is hushed, 
and the inspiration of generous comradeship strengthens the ties which 
should bind associated men in amenity and mutual trust. Amid our 
party antagonisms and fierce rivalries the fraternal intercourse and 
warm friendships, to which that middle isle is no barrier, not only 
redeem the sordid littlenesses of life but ennoble true manhood. 

My acquaintance and intercourse with Evarts W. Farr are among 
the tenderest and most treasured recollections of this eventful Con- 
gress. In the early days of its first session we formed an acquaint- 
ance which soon grew into a warm friendship. Serving on the same 
committee, I had opportunity to know and admire the many noble 
traits of his character. His colleague has already tenderly and 
eloquently told the story of his eventful life — his early struggles, his 
later triumphs, the confidence and love of his people — and paid just 
tribute to his domestic virtues and recognized abilities. 

Coming of sturdy New England families, Evarts W. Farr's life 
attested the maxim that " the blood of descent is the prophecy of 
destiny." He was a type of the region from which he sprang, and 
of the intelligent and appreciative constituency which had laid upon 
him the honors he so modestly accepted and the duties he so faith- 
full)- discharged. In that section of our country education is univer- 
sal, labor is justly honored, property is largely distributed, and no- 
where operate more fully all the great formative forces which make 
character, develop intellectual and moral elements, anil mold nation- 
alities. Hence, that section, since the foundation of our Government, 
has been represented in this body mainly by men of native Strength 
and sound learning, practical sense, and healthy patriotism — men 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 23 

both in mind and character self-poised and symmetrical — the natural 
outgrowth of such surroundings and such conditions. 

One of the profoudest thinkers of this age has wisely said: 

The deeper you study history the surer you find the truly great men and their 
eras like threads interwoven in the tissue of the whole successive history of their 
race or nation. There is yet Miltiades in the atmosphere we breathe in this coun- 
try, and there is Alfred in our daily doings. 

And thus New England not only founded a distinctive nationalism 
within her own borders, but awakening latent forces, voicing the 
vague but irrepressible longings of the times, and organizing the 
formative elements of a broader future, has added impelling power 
to our growth, influenced our history, and being largely in sympathy 
with the progressive principle which in a free country passes from 
conscience to laws and institutions with irresistible force, has power- 
fully aided our national struggle into institutional existence and per- 
manence, and now these expanding elements are as much a part of 
our national life as Warren and Adams and Webster are part of our 
national history. 

These reflections suggest themselves here because a typical out- 
growth of these New England conditions and these distinctive forces 
was Evarts W. Farr. His colleague has spoken of him as a stu- 
dent, a soldier, and a citizen. How characteristic and how touching 
that patriotic devotion of the boy scholar turning resolutely away 
from academic honors to the hardships and perils of the camp and 
field the very hour he knew his country needed him. No wonder he 
bore himself so bravely and so grandly through all that awful conflict. 
The nobility of his nature recognized faithfulness to duty as his 
supreme guide, so that even after he had lost his right arm at Will- 
iamsburgh he joined his regiment before the wound was fully healed, 
and with an intrepid valor which no danger daunted, no suffering 
subdued, no defeat disheartened, he remained in active service till in 
his shattered frame were fixed the seeds of disease which finally un- 



24 ADDRESS OF MR. UPDEGRAFF ON THE 

dermined the citadel of life. While his country needed his services 

he refused to care for his own health or safety. Indeed, he seemed to 

value life itself 

But as he served or saved the state. 

I shall never forget his look or words as he replied to me one day 
as to the loss of his arm. With the light of conscious triumph in his 
eyes, he said in a deep, soft whisper, " No; it is less than I had 
expected to give my country." Ah, the light of eternity alone can 
reveal the awful sacrifices made — willingly, proudly made — to our 
imperiled nation ! 

And though so modest as to his own claims to honor and so un- 
selfish as to his own demands, he was intensely sensitive to the needs 
of his soldier comrades and deeply indignant at the wanton neglect 
of their long-deferred appeals for hearing and justice. Carefully and 
laboriously he examined the pension claims before that committee, 
and urged those which were just and meritorious with an honest zeal 
which stood amazed when he found it impossible to obtain for them • 
the attention of Congress. 

His last recorded words in this House, near the close of last session, 
were an eloquent plea that the soldiers of our country who had just 
claims, not only for hearing but for help, should no longer be neg- 
lected, and that the one day in each week dedicated by our rules to 
such claims should not be, as it had been, constantly taken for other 
business. His was the completeness of integrity — the very chivalry 
of justice. And to him it very naturally seemed that there could be 
no duty so imperative, no obligation so urgent, no work so welcome, 
to the agents of the Government or the elected servants of the peo- 
ple, as to mete out just if not generous recognition to the deserving 
soldiers of our country, many of whom are in dire need, helpless, 
suffering, but still the same men whose once stalwart arms upbore the 
dear old flag and whose bodies bridged the awful chasm over which 
the nation marched to victory and peace. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 25 

A striking trait of Major Farr's character was his modesty. Con- 
scious of honest, faithful service, eager only for duty, he had no 
hunger for mere notoriety, and sought no personal advertisement. 
Even when fully prepared on a subject, he was wont to urge others 
to take the floor — a rare unobtrusiveness. Indeed, his quiet, earnest 
work was for a purpose and not for effect, and seemed perpetually to 
embody the spirit of the Persian proverb — 

Words are the children of the wind; deeds are the daughters of the soul. 

Absolute honesty and truthfulness were among the impressive 
characteristics of his nature. Not mere commercial honesty, but 
truthfulness absolute and honesty in the highest sense of that much- 
embracing and grand old Roman word. Wellington, in the House 
of Lords, just after the sudden death of Sir Robert Peel, in speaking 
to his memory, praised above all his " truthfulness," an honor alike 
to the great statesman who merited it and to the great soldier who 
so fitly valued it. Well may we all remember that the gratitude and 
love of peoples follow only those who, in the service of their country, 
lay unstained hands 

Upon the ark 
Of her magnificent and awful cause. 

The generous nature of our associate was full of magnanimity. 
Though intensely loyal and patriotic, though maimed in body and 
broken in health in the service of his country during the war of the 
rebellion, he bore no bitterness and no resentment. The magnanimity 
of his soul sought to embrace every citizen of our country in the 
bonds of conciliation and brotherhood, and his broad patriotism rec- 
ognized in every State and every section parts of an indissoluble 
national unity. 

One of the youngest members of this body, no man would have 
selected Evarts W. Farr as the first who should break our circle. 
He was in the very morning of his usefulness and power. The 



26 ADDRESS OF MR. UPDEGRAFF ON THE 

dreams of youth were becoming realities, and with iron will and 
brave heart he was shaping them into beneficence and fame. In the 
midst of youth and ambition unfulfilled he has left us. 

The ancient Northmen's image of death is less repulsive and more 
Christian than that of Christian countries. No skeleton, but a gigan- 
tic figure that envelops men in the massive fold of his dark robes. 
But whatever the symbol, whatever the promise of youth or the ripe- 
ness of age, death is always sudden and solemn. He sends no herald 
and awaits no delay. 

We know when moons shall wane, 
When summer birds from far shall cross the sea, 

When autumn's hue shall tinge the golden grain; 
But who shall teach us when to look for thee ? 

Yet to the soul prepared it matters not. The " well done " is the 
crown of life. So long as a man dwells on earth life is but a frag- 
ment. But the close may seal the work with the benediction of 
changeless fruition. The career finished in honor and radiant with 
faith becomes a completed power and an everlasting possession. 

May those of us who are left to speak and hear the tributes of this 
august and sad observance to our beloved associate take heed and 
ponder the lesson it emphasizes. May we so live and act that some- 
thing of the good said of him to-day may be as truly said of us, and 
that death shall be to us indeed the crown and vestibule of life. 

The name and fame of Evarts W. Farr live to his family, his 
State, his country. He was a good citizen, a brave soldier, a faithful 
legislator, a true man. Works of loving purpose and noble ambition 
beautified a life round which will forever cluster tender and holy 
memories. Warm with the affections and wise with the aspirations 
which take hold of the life beyond, faith lends the light which clouds 
cannot hide nor shadows dim. 

In the bosom of his beloved New Hampshire, amid the wild 
beauty of his native valley by the Ammonoosuc he sleeps, borne i" 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 27 

his last rest by the loving hands of the grand old fraternities of which 
he was an honored member. Mount Washington, in cloud-crowned 
grandeur, stands silent sentinel above his grave. It shall perish. He 
shall live. 

He has done the work of a true man ; 

Crown him, honor him, love him; 
Weep over him tears of women ; 

Stoop manliest brows above him. 
For the warmest of hearts is frozen, 

The freest of hands is still, 
And the gap in our picked and chosen 
The long years may not fill. 



Address of Mr. Shallenbeeger, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker: I do not rise to occupy the attention of the House 
with any formal eulogy of my comrade, colleague, and friend. 
Others who knew him intimately and well have given the particulars 
of his life and the analysis of his character and record in eloquent 
and fitting terms. It was not my privilege to know him until we met 
in the extra session of the Forty-sixth Congress which is now draw- 
ing to a close. I had not the intimacy that grows out of association 
on committees, nor were we often thrown together in social gather- 
ings. But it was our fortune to sit near each other on the floor of 
the House. An acquaintance was readily formed. His age, which 
was nearly my own, his empty sleeve, and his Army record soon 
drew me toward him. I could not fail to observe his conduct and 
his votes during his brief service as a Representative. 

At the request of his colleague, in charge of these memorial reso- 
lutions, and in justice to my own feelings, I very cheerfully place on 
record in a few simple words my profound respect for the memory of 
my deceased friend. His life was neither long nor eventful to a de- 
gree that justifies very general recognition and extended eulogy. I 



28 ADDRESS OF MR. SHALLENBERGER ON THE 

greatly mistake the character and taste of Evarts W. Farr, if liv- 
ing he would have enjoyed unmeasured praise. He was a man of 
intelligence, of quick perceptions, of wonderful industry and fidelity, 
of rare courage in upholding his convictions, and of transparent hon- 
esty of purpose. He was a student of books and a student of men. 
He gave himself unreservedly to the work that he undertook. Never 
absent from his seat unless from necessity, he kept himself informed 
of the procedure of business and the merits of pending legislation. 
He was industrious in committee, attentive to his constituency, and 
extremely anxious to inform himself as to the best methods of serv- 
ing his country at large as well as the State he in part represented. 
He was an earnest and uncompromising partisan in the true sense of 
that word. He believed in the great principles of his party and in 
its policy of administration as best for all sections of the country. 

He recognized the necessity of political as well as military organ- 
ization, and when out-voted for command esteemed it his duty and 
his privilege to march in the ranks, side by side with his comrades 
and coworkers. He believed in aggressive rather than defensive 
warfare; in advancing the right rather than in obstructing the wrong; 
in sowing and cultivating good seed rather than in employing his 
time and wasting his energies in the destruction of weeds. No one 
could well suspect him of swerving in the least degree from his con- 
victions of right and duty. He was wise enough to seek more in- 
formation, and discreet enough to build patiently and well by study, 
observation, and experience the foundation of a Congressional repu- 
tation that, had he lived, must have sustained a solid structure. 

His intellectual ability and parliamentary knowledge shone all the 
brighter in the setting of a modest self-distrust. As a boy we are 
told he schooled himself by his daily toil, as the brightest and best 
of New England boys have done. When the war broke out he was 
in college, and among the first in the Granite State to enlist in April, 
1861, as a private soldier. As a captain at Williamsburgh under 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS VV. FARR. 29 

Hooker he left his right arm on the field of battle. Longer service 
or greater sacrifice could not have been expected; but his wound had 
scarcely healed when he sought the front under Grant and Sherman 
in the Southwest with a major's commission; and not till the war 
closed did he quit the Army, not always in the field, but always in 
the line of active, faithful service. After the war, as a law student, 
successful practitioner, trusted and honored public officer, and finally 
as a Representative in Congress, he maintained the same heroic and 
unselfish character. 

Others have been more conspicuous than he both in military and 
in civil life, but we may look in vain for a better illustration of the 
ideal volunteer soldier and citizen of the Republic. When danger 
threatened his countrymen he was first to seek and last to leave the 
most perilous and patriotic service. When peace came and the waste 
of war must needs be repaired, he was again first among the faithful 
in giving the best energies of a dauntless spirit and an enfeebled, 
crippled body to the civil service. He died in the prime of man- 
hood, most loved and respected by those who knew him best. 

It is said that a pebble dropped in ocean will send its wavelets to 
the distant shore; is it too much to say that a life like that of our 
deceased colleague, pure, unselfish, uplifting in its aims and efforts, 
dropped in the great ocean of humanity, will not pass from sight 
without leaving behind an influence that touches the hearts and lives 
of generations to come? The strength and promise of our Ameri- 
can institutions lie in the development of just such characters as that 
of Mr. Farr. Faithful, as I am told, to every trust confided to him, 
and generous in kind words and good deeds, he has done what he 
could to alleviate human suffering and to elevate and ennoble human 
kind. 



30 ADDRESS OF MR. HALL ON THE 



Address of Mr. ^{all, of New Hampshire. 

Mr. Speaker: Thrice during this Congress has the end of earth 
come to members of this House. One of our associates during each 
of our previous sessions, and now a third just as we were assembling 
here for this session, have been called from these scenes of warm 
contention and earnest endeavor to that unseen world to which we 
know we, too, are all so soon to follow. 

Sudden and unexpected as were the deaths of Mr. Clark at our 
first session and that of Mr. Lay at our last, the news of the decease 
of my late colleague, Hon. Evarts W. Farr, at his home in Little- 
ton, New Hampshire, on the 30th day of November last, was hardly 
less unexpected or more appalling to his associates in this House or 
to his friends in his own State. 

On the evening of Monday preceding the opening of this session 
I first learned of his brief illness through the public print, and the 
next morning at nine o'clock he was dead. Though the disease 
which was the immediate cause of my late colleague's death was so 
brief that his neighbors hardly missed him from the streets of the 
village before he was dead, I am aware that he had for months suf- 
fered from a complication of diseases which we now know must at 
any rate have at no remote period brought his life to a close. I very 
well remember how much and how patiently he suffered here from ill 
health during the last spring months until finally, under the earnest 
advice of his physician, he was induced to ask leave of absence for 
the closing weeks of the session and take a short sea voyage for the 
benefit of his failing health. I think I have never known a member 
of this House more constant in his attendance upon its sessions or 
one who seemed to feel more keenly the necessary absence of an 
hour than Mr. Farr; and so, troubled and too sensitive about his 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 3 1 

enforced absence, two days before the close of last session he had 
returned here improved in appearance and spirits, but still by no 
means a well man. 

From a conversation with him in this Hall, perhaps the last one 
I ever had with him, for I never saw him after our separation last 
June, I learned that he was one of that great army of martyrs to 
their country's cause, who, spared death in battle, camp, and prison, 
are reserved to after years of pain and infirmity, from insidious dis- 
ease fastened on the system while serving in our Army during the 
late civil war. 

Major Farr was one of the younger members of this House, 
having but just completed his fortieth year at the time of his death ; 
but those years were full of earnest effort and stirring incident, though 
no special privation beset his early life or remarkable opportunity 
opened before his maturer years. 

Waiving the assistance which parental affection was always ready 
to afford he was always inclined, as I am informed, in his boyhood 
to rely on his own unaided efforts, and early showed that manly self- 
reliance and that spirit of independence which so characterized him 
in after life, by largely, if not entirely, defraying the expenses of his 
preparatory education at Thetford Academy, in Vermont, a semi- 
nary of good repute and large patronage, where he graduated with 
valedictory honors and subsequently entered Dartmouth College in 
the class which graduated in 1863. 

Here the war of the rebellion found him pursuing his freshman 
studies, the earnest, genial son of God-fearing, liberty-loving parents 
of the Puritan stock. The offspring of such an ancestry, he had im- 
bibed from the daily intercourse of the home circle, from the teach- 
ing of the district school, and from the whole social and moral atmos- 
phere that molded his character an earnest admiration for that view 
of life which claims complete freedom and equal privileges and op- 
portunity in life's struggle for all. 



32 ADDRESS OF MR. HALL ON THE 

To a mind shaped under such influences anything like classific 
distinction in the state or in social life, or the arbitrary enforced sub- 
servience of individuals or a race, was repugnant beyond endurance, 
and it was past comprehension when any attempt was made to 
reconcile such a system with any code of ethics which reckoned 
honesty a virtue or theft an offense against fair dealing. Such views 
his college life was calculated to intensify. 

Dartmouth College had been founded a century before, in the 
heart of our northern wilderness, having for its motto, " Vox claman- 
tis deserto" the voice of one crying in the desert, and with the dis- 
tinct avowal that its mission was to educate the proscribed red 
man in common with the sons of the white settler. With advancing 
years and receding forests the Indian had ceased to frequent its halls, 
but the comprehensive, race-wide philanthropy of Wheelock and his 
associates had left an abiding impress on its successive generations 
of instructors and given shape and direction to its mission as an edu- 
cator of young men; and when the great struggle of 1861 came on, 
whenever it was referred to, whether among the students themselves 
in the recitation room, or the hall of more public discourse, there 
was praise of the social equality pervading life in the free States, and 
a corresponding denunciation of the peculiar institution which had 
brought on the great conflict and for the perpetuity of which the 
struggle was confessedly waged; and soon young Farr, with others 
of his fellow-students, had exchanged the academic gown for the 
uniform of the soldier. 

Volunteering on the 20th of April, 1861, as a private, he remained 
in the Army down to June, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. 
During most of these years, excepting the brief period when he was 
disabled from keeping the field after the loss of his right arm in the 
battle of Williamsburgh, Virginia, in May, 1862, he seems to have 
been in battle, camp, and on the march. 

By his bravery and conspicuous exhibition of all the traits that 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 33 

mark the good soldier, he rose from the rank of private to that of 
captain in the Second Regiment, and finally to the rank of major in 
the Eleventh Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers. 

Returning at the close of the war to his mountain home, he set 
about the study of* the law, and was admitted to the bar of Grafton 
County, New Hampshire, in 1867; at once opened an office in his 
native town of Littleton, and there continued in the practice of his 
profession down to the time of his last brief illness, excepting as he 
was called to places of public trust; and these calls were not infre- 
quent, and they were conspicuously to commanding positions and 
places which require for their possessor that private worth and public 
confidence which Major Farr so fully possessed. 

Having been assessor of internal revenue by presidential appoint- 
ment from July, 1870, to the abolition of the office in 1873, county 
solicitor of Grafton County by executive appointment in 1873 and 
again in 1876, a member of the executive council of his State in 
1876, he was elected a member of this House for the Forty-sixth 
Congress and again elected to the Forty-seventh Congress in No- 
vember last. 

To those gentlemen in this House who were so fortunate as to 
make Major Farr's acquaintance it will be no surprise when I say 
he was a great favorite with his party and the pride of our New 
Hampshire people. Proverbial for his honesty and his honor, his 
patriotism proven by his heroic service for his country, his courage 
on the very crest of battle attested by that empty right sleeve, a 
bright man intellectually and well poised every way, never descend- 
ing from the highest moral plane in his daily walk and conversation, 
a good lawyer, the pleasant gentleman always that you saw here, 
the leader in every good work, it is no wonder that old men stood 
by him, young though he was, nor that the young were fascinated 
by his life, nor that all classes and ages rallied around him and made 
him their standard-bearer whether he would or no. 



34 ADDRESS OF MR. HALL ON THE 

The men and women of that northern region are stern in their 
notions of right and wrong, and exacting of their public servants in 
matters of public policy; but so well had their requirements been 
met in his case that their affection toward him whose life we to-day 
commemorate was as fervid as the fires on their hearth-stones ; and 
when his death was known there was a sense of personal bereave- 
ment among all classes which comes only when a trusted leader who is 
the hope and reliance of the State in the emergencies of the future falls. 

As a lawyer, Major Farr had his training and passed his profes- 
sional life at a bar which for many years has been remarkable for the 
legal knowledge and forensic ability of its members. Personally I 
knew little of him in his profession, but I am told that his natural 
■ vigor of intellect, aided by that perseverance and determination to 
excel which seem never to have failed him, very early gave him a 
prominent position as a lawyer, not only in the minds of community 
generally, but as well in the more discriminating estimate of the pro- 
fession. Doubtless others were severer students of books and sharper 
practitioners, but none, I venture to say, took broader views of the 
law or made more sensible application of its principles, and no one 
practiced the law in a more honorable way, or more for the good of 
the State, or more to the satisfaction of his clients, than Major Farr. 

Genius has been said to be the undue development of some one 
faculty at the expense of others, and all of us have seen too many 
instances of the like. Genius in this sense Major Farr had not, but 
if he had none of those shining qualities which dazzle and attract, 
he had all those qualities which go to make up a noble manhood 
well balanced and well disciplined. He was a most consistent and 
serviceable man, rich in good works in public and private life alike. 
No one was more constant in attendance here than he, none more 
punctual or more fearless in putting himself on the record on all ques- 
tions acted on in this House. Though he took little of the time of 
this House in speech-making, it was neither because he was not in- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 35 

terested in matters of legislation, nor because he was not a ready 
and effective debater, for no one followed our deliberations with more 
care than he, and he spoke with ease and an ability that attracted 
attention upon all subjects that interested him. Doubtless, with 
longer service here, he would have been found valuable in discussion 
as well as in consultation. 

That my colleague should have been cut off ere it was the noon 
of life with him; when life promised so much of enjoyment and use- 
fulness; when his hopes were so high and the endearments of that 
now stricken and desolate little family were so great, is incomprehen- 
sible. Reason reels at the blow; all the resources of philosophy and 
speculation give no solution of the mysterious Providence, and we 
are reminded that we are here simply the executors of another's will; 
that the disposition of nations and of individuals alike is not in finite 
hands. "For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to 
face." Now, and whenever we recall our lamented brother, we will 
say the best we can say of any : 

He has done the work of a true man. 

Never rode to the wrong's redressing 

A worthier paladin. 
Shall he not hear the blessing, 

"Good and faithful enter in?" 



^DDFJESS OF yVlR. J3LAKE, OF J^EW JERSEY. 

Mr. Speaker: Twice within my brief term of service in this House 
has the seat at my right hand been vacant. Two of our fellow-mem- 
bers who sat there have been taken from us by death. First, Clark 
of Iowa, then Farr of New Hampshire. Both of them we're "good 
men and true "; both of them the faithful servants of the people ; both 
of them my friends. 

It is of Mr. Farr only that I am to speak at this time. My liking 
for him was of no sudden growth. Until he came to this seat I knew 



36 ADDRESS OF MR. BLAKE ON THE 

not even his name. And then — so soon was it after the loss of poor 
Clark — I was in no mood to greet him or any other with ardor, while 
Farr himself, as if he read my thoughts, was shy and formal. Thus 
were we for a while kept apart. The courtesies of our daily inter- 
course, however, gradually drew us together, and acquaintance rip- 
ened into friendship. When we separated, at the close of the last 
session, it was with words of mutual regret. During the vacation we 
exchanged letters and made plans, which now, alas! are never to be 
realized. I had heard that he was feeble in health, but I did not 
foresee the end that was so near. To-day he lies buried in one of 
the beautiful valleys which he loved, among the granite hills, and 
the snows of winter are heaped high above his newly-made grave. 

It was not easy to become familiar with Mr. Farr. He did not 
" wear his heart upon his sleeve." He sought no intimacies. Stran- 
gers did not understand him. Nor did he respond quickly to their 
advances. There was to them — and to them alone — an exterior of 
reserve; or, sometimes, a plainness of speech which repelled. And 
a few may here say that he was wanting in sympathy. But these 
knew him not. His inner self was hidden from them. To those fa- 
vored ones who, having gained the key, passed within the portal, he 
was frank and genial, full of sensibility, tender and loving, abundant 
in deeds of kindness and good-will. 

Little by little did he tell me the story of his life; of his boyhood; 
of his efforts to obtain education; his patience and self-denial; his 
arduous military service; his happy marriage; his successes as a law- 
yer; his participation in civil affairs; and, finally, of his election to 
Congress. The whole was told with great simplicity. There was no 
boasting; no seeking for praise. Not a word about his distinguished 
bravery upon the field of battle. All that have I learned from other 
lips than his own. As he drew the picture for me, he had merely 
tried to do his duty and to do it well. In his eyes there was noth- 
ing of merit in doing that which is required of all men alike. But 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 37 

the record of this short life — so pure, so useful — is at once a lesson 
and a legacy for those whom he has left behind. 

The few flaws in Mr. Farr's character were of manner rather than 
of the heart. Let us speak of his better qualities. He was modest, 
almost timid, and yet bold when there was occasion for boldness. 
Humble, yet proud of his strength when there was a wrong to be re- 
dressed or the weak and friendless were to be upborne. Zealous in 
behalf of a client or a cause, and yet zeal and honor went ever side 
by side with equal steps. Having a mind so broad that he could 
not be technical, he was direct always in speech and purpose. Like 
the Sultan Akbar, he believed that "no man was ever lost in a straight 
road." Hence was he without craft»and without deceit. He hated 
a lie, and for the liar he had scorn. His early struggles had made 
him practical. Common sense held the scales in which he weighed 
all things; and honesty of the old-fashioned kind left him rich only 
in the esteem and confidence of his fellow-men. 

When he came into this body it was with the determination to be 
useful. He did not wish to be conspicuous. No member was more 
regular in attendance. No one more watchful of the proceedings. 
No one more studious of the methods of legislation. None more 
industrious in the committee-room. None more conscientious every- 
where. None firmer than he in resistance to any scheme which 
seemed to be unwise or unwholesome. Thoroughly in earnest about 
every matter, whether great or small. Devoted to his constituents, 
being their representative in fact as well as in name. A partisan, 
and intense in loyalty to his party; at the same time so true to his 
country as to be in a measure independent of parties and party dis- 
cipline. Clear and positive in his views upon all political questions, 
and strong in their expression, nevertheless without rancor or bitter- 
ness toward those whom he believed to be honestly opposed to them. 

It was not strange, then, that the people who sent him here were 
prompt to recognize his ability and his fidelity. Nor strange that in 



38 ADDRESS OF MR. SHERWIN ON THE 

the recent election they insisted upon his return for further service to 
the place which he had filled so well. Could he have been spared 
for a few years longer, I am persuaded that other and higher honors 
would have opened to him. And I know that he would have been 
found worthy of them all. It is idle, however, to speculate upon that 
which is impossible. His earth work is finished. He comes to us no 
more. But there are some in this presence to-day by whom he will 
not be forgotten. In our hearts his memory — like the sweet-scented 
branches of the pine tree and the hemlock which stand as sentinels 
around his grave — shall be green and fragrant forever. 



^DDRESS OF Mr. ^HERWIN, OF JLLINOIS. 

Mr. Speaker: I was unacquainted with the deceased member from 
New Hampshire until I met him here at the extra session of this Con- 
gress. The badge he wore — his empty sleeve — first drew my attention 
toward him, and the formal introduction which followed ripened into 
an acquaintance during the last session of Congress especially, sitting 
as he did so near me, which led me to respect, admire, and trust him. 
Coming as we did from wide-severed portions of the Republic, he 
from the shadows of Mount Washington in the valley of the Con- 
necticut, and I from the level prairies of Illinois, we yet joined 
hands in this Hall, one in hope and one in purpose and desire to do 
that which should redound to the prosperity, the glory, the power of 
the nation. 

I knew nothing of his life at home. I did know that he had 
given one of his limbs to his country, and had loyally lavished his 
strength and the energy of his youth for four long years that the 
nation* might endure an undivided republic forevermore. I can 
fancy that Major Farr, a student at Dartmouth, the honored alma 
mater of many accomplished and illustrious jurists, statesmen, ora- 
tors, and scholars, when the late unhappy conflict was impending 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 



39 



may have repeated the immortal words of New Hampshire's and 
Dartmouth's greatest son in the peroration to his second speech on 
Foote's resolution, expressing the very passion of liberty and union 
and converting the nation's fears for both into a prophecy, afterward 
to be gloriously fulfilled; and that those words, now classic, while 
upon the lips of Webster were but an unquenchable aspiration, were, 
under the exigent demands of that time, at once transmuted by him 
into a lofty purpose, which seized upon and impelled him to heroic 
deeds. Changing the majestic eloquence of the Senate into sublim- 
est action, he helped to place the feet of the nation upon the immov- 
able granite of Union, one and indivisible. 

He showed in all my intercourse with him here that he was moved 
by a constant sense of duty to himself, his constituents, and his 
country. He was unflagging in the performance of his duties, and 
untiring in all the routine work which is cast upon a member of Con- 
gress. And while attending faithfully to the uninteresting, common, 
and exacting demands made upon him daily, he was constantly 
studying the intricate methods of legislation and familiarizing him- 
self with the course of Congressional business, that he might be 
fitted to grapple in the future with those greater and more important 
questions of state which are only opened to those men of experience 
acquired within these walls. 

He had a mind of singular directness, which went at once to the 
marrow of a question. He was sometimes impatient at the delays 
of public business and longed to cut off or suppress all extraneous 
considerations when debating public questions and proceed directly 
to its consummation. Yet he was careful and cautious in all essen- 
tials. 

It is not necessary for me to say that he was animated by a patri- 
otism as broad as the banner which embraces the whole land in its 
folds, and as bright as are its stars. His love of country was a pas- 
sion with him. His best thoughts and purposes were given to it, 



ADDRESS OF MR. SHERWIN ON THE 



even as he had before given of his body and his blood, freely and 
without stint. An imputation upon its honor was like a personal 
affront to him. His country was not New Hampshire, but the 
Union, indivisible and grand. While he loved the granite hills upon 
which he was born and reared, and they were his home, those hills 
were comprehended in the all-embracing circuit of the Republic. 
He was simple and unaffected in his manners, and easily approached 
by every one. Those who knew him could not but be charmed by 
the frankness of his address, the intelligence of his conversation, and 
the kindliness of temper which shone over all. A stranger even would 
have recognized in him a man of stern integrity and purity of life. 

This man, whose life had been full of heroic experiences and stren- 
uous living, who had set his ideals high above the ordinary levels of 
the world and was possessed of the vigor to successfully pursue them, 
had been selected by the p'eople who knew him best to represent 
them in the council chambers of the nation before he had attained to 
the prime of his manhood. 

He had acquitted himself so well in his high trusts that he had 
been the second time chosen by them as their Representative, but 
hardly had the news of his last success reached us before the wires 
brought the painful announcement that he was no more. Ambition 
was laid at rest. Death stepped noiselessly between him and the 
goal he had set himself. That career, which had so lately opened 
to him its bright promise of usefulness, for which he had girded him- 
self, but which he had as yet hardly begun to run, was suddenly 
closed, and we stand by his vacant seat pondering upon the frail 
tenure by which man is held to the concerns of life. We cannot 
comprehend the wisdom which has removed him so early from the 
work of life which he was so well fitted to perform; but we can un- 
derstand and do know that he has left with us the record of a man 
modest yet firm; one who loved the true and the good, and was 
ready to work for them; a wise legislator, a patriot, an honest man. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 41 



Address of Me. Ray, of New Hampshire. 

Mr. Speaker: After what has already been so worthily said of 
the life and public services of my late predecessor, but little remains 
for me to add. I feel unwilling, however, to let this occasion pass 
without paying my humble tribute to the worth of Evarts W. Farr. 

Residing near him, it was my privilege to know him intimately for 
twenty years and upward. As a civilian, he laid no claim to leader- 
ship, as that term is commonly understood, but he was, nevertheless, 
a thoroughly excellent and public-spirited citizen, possessed of good 
judgment and sound common sense. 

From personal observation ever since he came to man's estate, I 
can safely aver that in every position of public trust or private con- 
fidence in which he was placed he was reliable, faithful, and efficient. 

Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
> Does well, acts nobly ; angels could no more. 

I concur fully in the accurate compend of his biography which 
has been so eloquently given by my colleagues, and will not, there- 
fore, take the time of the House in its repetition. The people of his 
district, appreciating the creditable manner in which he had acquitted 
himself, both in military and civil life, had elected him as a member 
of the present Congress by a decisive majority, and honorable mem • 
bers associated with him upon committees, and all who enjoyed his 
acquaintance, can testify how worthily that honor as well as that of 
his re-election to the Forty-seventh Congress was bestowed by his 
constituents. Few men have made more friends during so brief an 
allotment of life, and none have left behind them fewer enemies. 

Upon this occasion I can do little more than to express the senti- 
ments of kindly regard with which my long acquaintance with Major 
Farr had inspired me, leaving to others, who have to-day so well 
fulfilled the task, to speak of those features of his career which en- 



6 KR 



4- ADDRESS Or MR. RAY. 

cleared him to the people of New Hampshire, and which will endear 
his memory to them forever. 

We listen now to the formal announcement of his death that we 
may, by this public demonstration, show our respect for the high 
office which he held, and our appreciation of his patriotism as shown 
on the battle-field, and his faithfulness as displayed in civil life. 
These resolutions cannot augment the fame of the deceased, but 
they will show that the Republic can be grateful to those who have 
served her well, and that men of all parties can appreciate the 
qualities which illustrated and adorned his life. 

The lesson of his well-spent life and untimely death cannot fail us, 
for the former is ever before us as an example, the latter as a warn- 
ing. The spectacle of one cut down in the prime of his manhood, 
in the very midst of a useful and meritorious career, is one that may 
well make us pause in the hurry and bustle of our daily duties, to 
consider whether life is worth all the wear and tear and worry that 
we undergo for worldly purposes alone, and it brings to mind, with 
overwhelming force, the truth that it is not all of life to live. The 
pure, patriotic, and noble life of our deceased friend remains only a 
memory, but it is a memory which descends to his family and kin- 
dred and friends as a priceless inheritance, an imperishable legacy of 
honor. 

With mingled feelings of sadness and satisfaction I move the adop- 
tion of these resolutions : sadness at the occurrence which gave rise 
to their introduction, satisfaction because of the opportunity afforded 
me to forward what I consider most appropriate action on the part 
of this House in commemoration of an event which has brought 
sorrow to so many hearts and an impressive lesson to us all. 

The Speaker. The question is on the adoption of the resolutions 
submitted by the gentleman from New Hampshire. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted; and then, in obe- 
dience thereto, the House adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



December 8, 1880. 

A message from the House of Representatives by Mr. George M. 
Adams, its clerk, communicated intelligence of the death of Hon. 
Evarts W. Farr, late a Representative from the State of New 
Hampshire and member-elect to the Forty-seventh Congress from 
that State. 

February 8, 1881. 

A message was received from the House of Representatives by 
Mr. Theodore F. King, one of its clerks, communicating to the 
Senate the intelligence of the death of Hon. Evarts W. Farr, late 
a Representative from the State of New Hampshire, and transmit- 
ting the resolutions of the House thereon. 

Mr. Rollins. I move that the business of the Senate be suspended, 
and call for the reading of the resolutions of the House of Repre- 
sentatives announcing the death of Mr. Farr, late a member of the 
House from the State of New Hampshire. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from New Hampshire asks 
that the pending order be suspended for the purpose he has named. 
Is there objection? The Chair hears none; and the resolutions of 
the House of Representatives will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound sorrow the 
announcement of the death of Hon. Evarts W. Farr, late a Rep- 
resentative from the State of New Hampshire. 

Resolved, That in token of regard for the memory of the lamented 
deceased the members of this House do wear the usual badge of 
mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of this House do communicate these res- 
olutions to the Senate of the United States. 

43 



44 ADDRESS OF MR. ROLLINS ON THE 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased this House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Rollins. Mr. President, I move that the resolutions which 
I send to the Chair be adopted by the Senate. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions will be read. 

The Chief Clerk read the resolutions of Mr. Rollins, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sensibility 
the sad announcement of the death of Hon. Evarts W. Farr, late 
a member of the House of Representatives from the State of New 
Hampshire. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the memory of Mr. Farr, 
the members of the Senate will wear the usual badge of mourning 
for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the sympathies of the members of the Senate be 
tendered to the family of the deceased in this bereavement, and that 
the Secretary of the Senate transmit to them a copy of these resolu- 
tions. 



^Address of Mr. Rollins, of J>Iew Hampshire. 

Mr. President: It is now almost a quarter of a century since a 
member of the delegation from the State of New Hampshire has 
been called upon to announce the death of a colleague in either 
branch of Congress. Since the adoption of the Constitution four 
Senators from New Hampshire have died during their terms of 
office: Nicholas Gilman, in 1814; Charles G. Atherton, in 1853; 
Moses Norris, jr., in 1855; and James Bell, in 1857; although out of 
the thirty-five Senators who have represented the State prior to the 
present incumbents but six are now living. 

In the other branch for the first time a vacancy has occurred by 
the death of Major E. W. Farr, the youngest member of our delega- 
tion, in the prime of his manhood, and but a few days after the peo- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 45 

pie of his district had indorsed his ability and worth by a re-election. 
In the midst of life we are in death. The great leveler invades all 
ranks and conditions of life, paying no regard to age or sex, strength 
or weakness. 

In this case the blow fell with little warning and but a brief illness, 
and it is a significant admonition to us to be always ready to meet 
that last call to enter upon the new state which awaits us beyond 
the confines of this earthly existence, and there solve the mystery 
which during all time our human intelligence has not been able satis- 
factorily to penetrate, except that we are fain to accept the faith that 
death is but the portal to a new existence, and that if a man die he 
shall live again. The survivors may mourn their loss more griev- 
ously when it comes without warning, but it is well with the departed. 
My acquaintance with Major Farr began in the early days of the 
great struggle for the preservation of the Union, in April, 1861, when 
the first call to arms was responded to with so much alacrity, not only 
by our late and lamented friend, but by so many others in the North. 
From that time until the day when the sad intelligence of his death 
was communicated to me by telegraph from his quiet home among 
the mountains, I watched with interest his career, both in the Army 
and in civil life, and our friendship was never for one moment inter- 
rupted. In his death I mourn the loss of a true, long-tried, and 
esteemed friend. 

Major Farr was born in Littleton, New Hampshire, October 10, 
1840. At the early age of twelve, with that independence so char- 
acteristic in later years, he struck out for himself, and, by that rugged 
toil which is not unfamiliar to many New England boys, began to 
earn his own support and provide means to secure an education. In 
the fall of 1856 he entered upon his preparatory course for college 
at the academy at Thetford, Vermont, leaving that with valedictory 
honors in 1859 for Dartmouth College. His collegiate course was 
interrupted by the call to arms, and in April, 1861, his name appears 



4<J ADDRESS OF MR. ROLLINS ON THE 

first in his native town and among the first in the State enrolled 
among the volunteers. Subsequently he was appointed a lieutenant 
in the Second New Hampshire Regiment. 

During the first year he was prostrated by disease and sent to the 
hospital in this city, but an indomitable will and strong constitution 
carried him through, and as soon as he recovered his strength he 
returned to his regiment. January i, 1862, he received his commis- 
sion as captain, and on the 5th of May following, in the battle of 
Williamsburgh, during a drenching rain, his right arm was shattered 
by a minie ball while he was in the act of firing. With character- 
istic coolness he picked up his revolver with his left hand and passed 
to the rear, where he remained forty-eight hours in a dilapidated 
building without doors or windows, in his wet clothing ; he was then 
conveyed to Fortress Monroe and was sent home, where he arrived 
in fifteen days after receiving the wound which deprived him of his 
arm. Impatient of this enforced retirement, in six weeks he returned 
to the front. Soon after he was appointed major of the Eleventh 
New Hampshire Regiment, and as such participated in the battle 
of Fredericksburgh, December 13, 1862. With his regiment he was 
under General Grant at the siege of Vicksburgh. Later he was 
detailed as judge-advocate on court-martial duty at Cincinnati and 
Washington, and after the close of the war studied law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1867. He was assistant assessor of internal 
revenue, and subsequently assessor, which office be held until 1873, 
when the office was abolished. 

As a soldier he was chivalrous and brave, bearing a record with- 
out blemish, ever present when duty called. As an officer, cool and 
courageous in danger, strict in discipline, but by his general kindness 
endeared to all his men, winning the highest estimation of all who 
knew him and the confidence of his seniors in command. As a law- 
yer, he won a good position, and was known as a safe counselor, 
earning the confidence of his clients and the community. As a poli- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 47 

tician, he was frank and outspoken, leaving no doubt as to his posi- 
tion, and, while a stalwart Republican, possessed many warm friends 
among his political opponents. 

In 1876 he was elected a member of the governor's council from 
his district; he was twice appointed prosecuting attorney for his 
county, resigning that position to take his seat in the present Con- 
gress, to which lie was elected in 1878. At the recent election (No- 
vember, 1880) he was re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress in 
one of the most hotly contested campaigns known in his district, 
which is a very close one, thus showing the estimation in which he 
was held by his constituents. 

As a member of the House of Representatives he proved himself 
industrious and efficient; as in the Army, he was never absent from 
his post of duty except from imperative necessity. 

It is said that a prophet is not without honor save in his own coun- 
try, but the following tribute will show how Major Farr was appre- 
ciated in his own community, and this tribute will be indorsed by 
every member of that community: 

To speak of him as a man is to fully know him as a citizen and neighbor, a hus- 
band and father, an associate and friend. As a citizen he was just, kind, and pub- 
lic-spirited; as a husband and father ardent and constant in his affections and ever 
tenderly devoted; as a friend and associate there was no one more loyal, liberal, 
and unselfish; quick to resent an injury, he was placable and ready to forgive. 
If he ever unknowingly wronged another (knowingly he could not have done it), 
his magnanimity in redressing it was prompt, noble, and conspicuous. As a pub- 
lic man his integrity and honor were never questioned; incorruptible and sincere, 
he was ever ready alike to defend a friend and the friendless. Once his confidence 
was won, nothing but dishonor could sever the tie that bound him to his fellow- 
man. Can it be wondered that his people loved and trusted such exemplary man- 
hood? 

Warm-hearted, sincere, and generous to a fault, he possessed a 
genuine magnetism which attracted and held all who approached him. 

Entering the Army while not yet twenty-one, with a vigorous and 
robust constitution, he left it four years later deprived of his right 



arm and with the seeds of disease about him which rendered him 
unable to recuperate from the sudden attack, coming as it did just 
at the end of an arduous and exhausting campaign. His loss is not 
alone a sad bereavement to his aged father and mother, to his wife 
and young children, but to the community in which he lived and 
was honored, and to the State which he represented. Struck down 
in the pride of his manhood, he has left a void which will be hard 
to fill. To those who were near and dear to him, to his friends and 
neighbors, and to his State we extend our hearty sympathy, not un- 
mindful that this Congress is also called upon to deplore another 
break in its family circle and another chair made vacant by hi.s un- 
timely death. 



Address of Mr. Blair, op New j-Iampshire. 

Mr. President: There is no solitude like that which envelops a 
public man amid the multiplied and exacting activities which environ 
him in the Capitol of his country. I have never felt so utterly alone 
as when most absorbed in my duties here. The continuous woods, 
vast, dark, and silent, are full of tender companionship, and the spirit 
of nature speaks with many-voiced and varied tones to him who 
seeks her wild and secret home. But here one seems to be projected 
as it were into a kaleidoscopic and tumultuous scene where, though 
all may be light, beauty, and variety, yet when analyzed the elements 
of the fascinating vision are mere gloss and glitter without one ray 
of heat or throb of sympathy. 

Every public man is all alone in a certain and substantial sense. 
His connections are with his distant constituency; and only with 
them through the post, the telegraph, and other avenues of commu- 
nication does he really live. Now and then there is a break through 
the environment of affairs, and for a little while in cheerful or mourn- 
ful but always heartfelt communion with a congenial soul there is a 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS W. FARR. 49 

brief return of the old-time sense of hearty feeling and of that un- 
restrained personal and independent self-assertion which belongs of 
right to the private citizen. Yet how soon the opening closes and 
the tempest of affairs obscures the whole heavens once more. 

We talk and laugh and discuss. We are cheerful and polite — it 
may be bland and entertaining. We sit side by side; but we are still 
as far apart as the localities from which we come. There is ever the 
touch of the hand, the glance of the eye, the friendly tone, and the 
ready effort to oblige; yet after all the real life of the public man is 
between himself and those who created him by their choice. He be- 
longs to them. He is of them in the truest and most absorbing 
sense, and not of those with whom he daily meets on this conspicu- 
ous scene. But there be those like the stars which illumine the 
neglected spaces of night, who, by their select and electric qualities, 
change the chilly. formalities of public association into the warmth 
and sympathy of private life. These rare spirits are the golden links 
which connect us and somewhat cure our isolation. They give out 
not light alone but heat as well, and while they illume all things, they 
also warm and weld us together. 

But alas ! Death, blind, cruel, and insatiable, will tear even them 
away with no more compunction than when he extorts the spirit of 
the beast which goeth downward. He 

Loves a shining mark, a signal blow, 
A blow which, while it executes, alarms 
And startles thousands with a single fall. 

Of such a man, my personal friend for twenty years, my associate 
and companion in private and in public life, just stricken down in all 
the royal strength of forty years, while his sun was high and rising 
higher on the pathway, it might well have been to the very zenith of 
place and power, just as he had achieved a personal and political 
triumph such as comes to but few men even in the longest career, it is 
my difficult but willing duty for a few moments to speak to you to-day. 



Major Evarts W. Farr, a member of the Forty-sixth House of 
Representatives and a member-elect of the Forty-seventh, from the 
third Congressional district of New Hampshire, died at his home in 
Littleton, in that State, on the 30th day of November last, aged forty 
years. He was born in the same place on the 10th day of October, 
1840, of one of the largest and most influential families in our State. 
His father, who survives the gifted son, filled many conspicuous posi- 
tions in public life, and through a long course of great activity and 
usefulness to his fellow-men, he was ever the same intelligent, up- 
right, and efficient gentleman, who, for thirty years at least, has been 
known throughout New Hampshire as "Honest John Farr, of Lit- 
tleton." 

The mother was in every way worthy of the father of her boy; and 
to one who knew them all, it is sufficient eulogy to say that they 
were worthy each of the other. No young man was ever "better 
born," in the highest sense, than Major Farr, and his career has re- 
flected great honor upon the family name. 

Young Farr was of an active and independent spirit from the be- 
ginning. When twelve years of age he assumed the burden of his 
own support and education. He secured the advantages of the com- 
mon schools in his native town, and after a preparatory course at the 
academy located in Thetford, Vermont, then under the direction of 
Professor Hiram Orcutt, and one of the best institutions in New 
England, he entered Dartmouth College with the class which gradu- 
ated in 1863. He was pursuing his studies there with assiduity and 
great promise when the country called her sons to rebaptize in their 
blood the sacred principles of liberty and to re-establish upon im- 
movable foundations the integrity and perpetuity of her Constitu- 
tion and her laws. He was then twenty years old, of stalwart but 
graceful form, with a countenance full of animation, force, and beauty. 

That face was the mirror of all within. 1 well remember a long 
conversation with him while attending court in Haverhill, where he 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS \V. FARR. 51 

chanced to be in the early spring of 1861, just as the mutterings of 
war became unmistakable to us in our mountain homes. We were 
then beginning life; I had just entered upon the practice of the 
law. He designed to pursue that profession as soon as his course of 
study and preparation would permit. Our conversation lasted nearly 
through the live-long night, and I desire to bear witness to the mem- 
ory of my dead friend, that never did man determine to put aside, if 
need be, the promise of an apparently unsullied future for the untried 
hardships of the camp and field, with a more vivid sense of what he 
was to sacrifice and suffer, or with a loftier patriotism and deeper 
devotion to a stern sense of duty than did Evarts W. Farr. And 
when a little later the summons echoed from the walls of beleaguered 
and then of fallen Sumter all over the astonished North, he strode 
among the earliest to the field of death and of glory with motives as 
pure and free from sectional hate, with as knightly and exalted devo- 
tion to the ideas of country, liberty, and the good of mankind as 
ever beat in the bosom of Sidney, or as animated the fathers at 
Yorktown, Cowpens, or Bunker Hill. 

He served in some of the hardest-fought actions with great bravery 
and brilliancy, and throughout the war, losing an arm at Williams- 
burgh, and receiving the fatal seeds of death in his constitution from 
exposure in the swamps of the Peninsula, which ripened year by 
year until a casual cold fastened upon his waning powers and killed 
him as easily as though he had been a little child. On his return to 
civil life he studied law, and being admitted to the bar, he practiced 
the profession unremittingly and with good success from 1867 until his 
election to the Forty-sixth Congress. He was twice appointed prose- 
cuting attorney for his native county, and held that office when called 
to service in the halls of national legislation. During this period also 
he was chosen to be a member of the governor's council, after a most 
vigorous canvass, from a strongly democratic district, in which but for 
his great personal popularity success would have been impossible. 



52 • ADDRESS OF MR. BLAIR ON THE 

As a lawyer Major Farr was highly successful. His attainments 
for one of his years and opportunities were good. His comprehen- 
sion of the fundamental principles of law was clear and strong. He 
had an unfailing fund of good sense, which is worth more to a law- 
yer than knowledge of every case of every court ever reported when 
not combined with that unfailing touchstone of truth. He knew 
what the jury thought and could guide them in his own channels of 
reasoning to the conclusions in which he believed himself. He had 
little power to make the worse appear the better reason unless he was 
honestly wrong, and he always presented his cause with a conscien- 
tious conviction that he was right. He had a native love of justice 
and abhorrence of wrong. He was a tower of strength to the inno- 
cent and to the cause he believed to be just, but to none other. He 
was an honor to the bar, and by his high character and conduct he 
fully paid that difficult debt which every lawyer owes to his profession. 

Having fought to preserve his country, he should be excused for 
manifesting that interest in preserving the results of the national vic- 
tory which made him a close observer of events and gave to his mind 
a bias for public life. His intelligence, his patriotism, and popular 
manners for years had attracted the attention of the people, and it had 
long been evident that at an early period he would be summoned to 
the higher political honors of his State. This expectation was real- 
ized by his election in a very close district to the other House. 

Every one who has experienced them knows the almost insur- 
mountable difficulties which lie in the way of a new member of a 
great legislative body, especially if he belongs to the minority. A 
new member of the majority has comparatively plain sailing in an 
open sea. But short as has been his connection with the House, 
only through one regular session, Major Farr had become well 
known and was very highly esteemed by his fellow-members, both 
for his ability and worth. He was attentive to every duty, and he 
understood what belonged to it and how to perform it. He was an 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF EVARTS \V. FARR. 53 

elegant speaker, very ready in debate and grew stronger every day. 
I observed this during the late campaign particularly, and believe 
that had he lived and continued in Congress long enough to do jus- 
tice to himself and constituents, he would have served his country 
with great efficiency to the pride of his innumerable friends and of 
the State. As it was, the promise given of that which might have 
been sharpens a disappointment most grievous to be borne, even if 
the full fruition of accomplishment could lend to those who knew and 
loved him its most consoling power. 

His stricken widow and the children of their love bewail in mute 
and helpless grief a bereavement which lacks none of the terrors of 
untimely death, of blasted hopes, and of sweetest joys, snatched 
away in the very hour of supreme realization. To this brave and 
worthy woman, left to battle and struggle alone with her burden of 
woe through unusual obstacles, and to these fatherless little ones, 
some of whom can hardly know their loss, a grateful country will 
not fail to extend the warmest sympathy and most grateful remem- 
brance. 

But I do waste the time in bewailing his loss. His last deed on 
earth is done. His record is complete. No blot is there. It is pure 
as the white pages of the Book of Life. It is like a copy drawn by 
angel hands for the imitation of those who remain behind. To have 
prolonged his stay would seem to have been best for us were he not 
one of the dead who yet speak with power drawn from the realiza- 
tions of more worlds than one. His glory will not fade nor will he 
be forgotten until the history of his State is obliterated. There may 
have been stronger men, but he was strong; there may have been 
better men, but I have not known them. 

New Hampshire is not ashamed of her other sons. She points to 
them as her jewels. But of none can she more truly say that he was 
a knight "without fear and without reproach" than of poor dead 
Farr, now embalmed in the immortal glory of his own life, and 



54 ADDRESS OF MR. BLAIR. 

awaiting the reveille of the resurrection on the peaceful banks of the 
wild Ammonoosuck, while the shadows of Mount Washington lie 
tenderly on his grave. There is nothing more but to turn slowly and 
sadly to the exacting realities of life, and by imitation of his bright 
example to prepare for the inevitable hour. 

The Presiding Officer. The question is as to agreeing to the 
resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 

Mr. Conkling. Mr. President, as a further mark of respect to the 
memory of the deceased, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 



